Excess caloric intake can impair health. Weight management, for example, can be difficult for many people. Obesity is a condition where a person's body stores an excess amount of fat, and can be caused by ingesting an excess amount of calories via the alimentary tract system. The American Medical Association has officially recognized obesity as a disease that may require medical intervention for treatment and prevention. The amount and type of calories ingested can affect the risk of developing other health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease. Various treatments are available to treat obesity and the incidence of pathophysiology comorbidities. Those treatments include, for example, surgical procedures such as obstruction or bypass modalities of the digestive system, pharmaceutical drugs, and behavioral modification. Such treatments have at their core mechanism of action (MOA) a reduction in daily caloric load below physiologic basal maintenance needs, which for an adult male is about 2200 kcal/day (i.e., about 2200 food calories per day) and for an adult female about 1800 kcal/day (i.e., about 1800 food calories per day). MOAs leading to weight loss may include, for example, a reduction in calories ingested, decreased absorption, and/or hormonal changes that alter satiation (e.g., cause a person to feel full sooner).
There remains a need for alternative methods of achieving caloric load diminution to assist patients in improving their health, including weight management and vascular health.